Other events in Baltic States

The New Union (Social Liberals) in Lithuania which has been left behind the big politics after parliamentary elections is to elect a new leader and change its name at the congress scheduled to be held in a week, reports ELTA.

The New Union, which appeared on the Lithuania"s political map 11 years ago, can be renamed the Lithuanian Social Liberal Party. It is hoped that the reflection of the party"s political ideology in its name will be more attractive to electors, especially during hard times, when the ideas of Social Liberalism are reborn in the world again. Several years ago, the Social Liberals had already attempted to simplify the party"s name, however, this attempt was unsuccessful.

According to the Lietuvos Zinios, there are proposals to call the party the Future Party or the Lithuanian Welfare Party. There is no doubt that Arturas Paulauskas, creator and former leader of the party, who withdrew from this post after the fiasco of the Social Liberal Party in the parliamentary elections, will return to it. Other possible party leaders are former Education and Science Minister Algirdas Monkevicius, Ambassador to Latvia Antanas Valionis and MP Valerijus Simulikas are not serious competitors to Paulauskas.